Cv Dr Mustafa Ceric

Beijing：the Panel Session

"Faith and Responsibilities: Spiritual Reflections on Global Issues". …………

Spiritual Revolution: The Challenge of 21st Century

Raisu-l-ulama Mustafa Cerić, Ph.D.

Grand Mufti of Bosnia

Abstract

The 21st Century will be spiritual or will not be.

(André Malraux, The Voices of Silence 1963)

Ours is a civilization of paradoxes: the higher degrees in education, the less degree of ethics; the more knowledge, the less wisdom; the more experts, the less solutions; the more wealth, the less moral values; the more houses, the less families; the faster communication, the less decent human relationship; the more books about pollution, the less care about natural environment; the more conferences about peace, the more wars around the world; the more call for reason, the less rational behavior. The way out of these paradoxes of our global civilization is the spiritual revolution that is different from scientific, intellectual, political or industrial revolutions. It is the revolution of spirit that should embrace all of the positive results of the previous revolutions in the sense of the return to the God's light (nūr) – a source of His light with which He enlightens human hearts and minds, which is light upon light, which expels darkness one over the other, and which chases away darkness from human mind, which removes hatred from human heart, which cleanses human soul from evil.

It is God’s light that has enlightened the human spirit and mind to lead humanity from slavery to freedom, from might to right, from mythology to science, from hatred to love, from terror to security, from fear to hope, from war to peace, from corruption to ethics, from poverty to wellbeing, from falsehood to truth, from selfishness to compassion, from arrogance to humility, from harshness to gentleness, from greed to modesty, from discrimination to equality, from pornography to chastity, from pedophilia to morality, from drug-addiction to self- esteem, from godlessness to Godliness, from suicide to the purpose of life, from jahiliyya (ignorance or negligence) to spiritual enlightenment, and that is a revolution which takes place when human beings realize that there is an alternative to their way of life.

Thus, we need such God’s light that will enlighten, once again, human spirit and mind that will lead humanity to a spiritual revolution which is to be of greater significance than the revolutions that changed the world.

For, although it took a long time, human beings eventually understood that they are born free and that freedom is like a virus for which there is no an anti-virus.

Also, over time human beings learned that their rights to life, faith, freedom, property and dignity are fundamental

God given human rights and thus no human might is authorized to deprive any human being from these God’s gifts.

On paper we have it all – freedom, right and science, but deep in our soul we sense that we are losing these values as some people would like to take us back to the dark age of slavery, might and mythology. Of course, science cannot replace the need of the soul to hear beyond what the ear can hear and to see beyond what the eye can see, through enlightened intellect. But also, human intellect which produces knowledge cannot renounce scientific achievements that have made man's life on earth easier.

Call for return to faith must not mean return to the world of mythology in which the light of intellect and the power of reason are dimmed. Spiritual revolution does not imply an eraser of human sagacity and rationality. It presupposes precisely what all the Messengers of God did, when they showed the way out of the Dark Age towards spiritual and moral enlightenment.

CV： DR MUSTAFA CERIC

Dr. Mustafa Ceric is the Raisu-l-Ulama of Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Grand Mufti of Bosnia since 1993. He is also the Grand Mufti of Sanjak, Croatia and Slovenia. He is reelected at the position of Raisu-l-Ulama 2005.

He was born in Visoko, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1952.

He graduated from Madrasah in Sarajevo as well as the Faculty of Arabic Language and Literature at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo. In 1987 received his Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of Chicago, where he studied under the late Dr. Fazlur Rahman.

He served as an imam (Islamic Cultural Center, Chicago and Islamic Center of Zagreb, Croatia) and professor in Bosnia (Faculty of Islamic Schiences), Malaysia (International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kulalulumpur) and the United States (American Islamic College, Chicago).

He is the co-recipient of the 2003 UNESCO Felix Houphoet Boigny Peace Prize for Contribution to World Peace and recipient of the International Council of Christians and Jews Annual Sir Sternberg Award for exceptional contribution to interfaith understanding. He is co-signatory of an Open letter by Muslim personalities, meant as a reply to the Regesburg speech by Pope Benedict XVI and expressing essential positions on questions about Islam and reason, Islam and violence, and Islam and Christanity ("The letter by 139", 13 Oct 2006), and co-signatory of "A Common Word Between Us and You" – a appeal addressed to all Christian churches, for dialogue on the basis of love of God and love of the neighbour ("The Letter by 138", 13 Oct 2007). In Germany dr. Ceric has been awarded the Theodor-Heuss-Award 2007 and the Eugen- Biser-Award 2008. Further more, Dr Ceric was the recipient of 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from AMSS UK, co recipient of the King Abdullah I Bin Al-Hussein International Award 2010 for intellectual contribution to spreading Islamic tradition and culture.

Dr. Ceric is a member of several local and international scientific organizations and societies, including the Interreligious Council of Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Foundation of Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery, the Council of 100 Leadres of the World Economic Forum, the European Council for Fatwas and Research, World Conference of Religions for Peace, the Executive Committee of the European Council of Religious Leaders, the Board of Trustees of International Islamic University Islamabad, the Sharia'h Board of Bosnia Bank International, the Fiqh Academy in Mecca, Aal Albayt Foundation for Islamic Thought in Jordan, the World Council of Religions for Peace, International Commission for Peace Research chaired by dr. Henry Kissinger, UNESCO and Executive Council of World Forum of Ulama.

He has delivered numerous lectures and led several workshops on interreligious and interfaith issues at local and international conferences.

He authored «Roots of Synthetic Theology in Islam»; «A Choice Between War and Peace», and «European Muslim Declaration» among other numerous publications in Bosnian as «Religion, Nation and Homeland”.

He speaks fluently Arabic and English.